One of my favorite trailers released at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con was Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, the Paramount film looks like a ton of fun with the way it mixes action, adventure, comedy, and the great looking cast. I also love the use of Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” over the footage. I’d be shocked if it’s not a big hit when it’s released in theaters next year.

Shortly after their big Hall H panel, Chris Pine, Regé-Jean Page, Hugh Grant, Sophia Lillis, and Michelle Rodriguez stopped by the Collider studio at SDCC to talk about the film. During the very fun interview, they talked about who they each play, dragons, filming in Belfast, why Grant and Pine both wanted to be in the film, and more. In addition, Pine described the film as “The Princess Bride meets Monty Python, meets the size and scope of Game of Thrones.”

I can’t wait.

Watch what the cast had to say in the player above, or you can read the conversation below. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves was written by Goldstein, Daley and Michael Gilio and based on a story by Chris McKay & Gilio. The film was produced by Jeremy Latcham, Brian Goldner, and Nick Meyer.

COLLIDER: I think that trailer looks great and it looks fun. What do you want to tell fans about the movie, in terms of the tone, what you're excited for them to see?

CHRIS PINE: I've always described it as Princess Bride meets Monty Python, meets the size and scope of Game of Thrones. It has-

MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ: Without the sex.

PINE: Without the sex. With lusty, earnest, virgin hearts. It has that... It's my favorite kind of sensibility, that '80s-pop sensibility, that's fun, and light, and kinetic, and that has a lot of levity, obviously, but really great heart, and great earnestness, and it's not cynical, and it's not meta, and it's not any of that. It's just good, old-fashioned fun storytelling.

Hugh, if I'm not mistaken, you could be the antagonist in this movie.

HUGH GRANT: It's complicated, Steve. I seem that way, but I think I'm more complicated than that. I think there are people worse than me in this film. As I recall, I can barely remember it, we filmed it a year ago. But I think that's right. But I'm certainly fascinating.

Are you guys agreeing with his assessment, or would you say he's more of the antagonist?

RODRIGUEZ: I'd say it's fairly, quite accurate.

REGÉ-JEAN PAGE: Incredibly accurate.

PINE: Antago-narcissist.

One of the things that a Dungeons & Dragons movie has, is what's called dragons. We obviously see some of that in the footage. So let me ask you, are there a lot of dragons in the movie, or are we talking one dragon?

PAGE: I think we can confirm multiple dragons.

RODRIGUEZ: Yeah.

SOPHIA LILLIS: Multiple dragons. That sounds about right.

So you guys filmed this, I believe in Iceland and in Belfast, am I wrong about this?

PINE: No, there may be Iceland plates, but it was all filmed in Belfast.

Filming in Belfast, what was it like being there? What did it add filming in that city?

RODRIGUEZ: Did you see the movie Belfast? It was nothing like that.

PAGE: And this is what it was like.

So you're saying-

RODRIGUEZ: They're great locations. Northern Ireland is beautiful. There are some places... Also we went to some spots in England, did we not? That were quite extraordinary.

PINE: You want to talk about that, Sophia? You're just dying to get on the mic, aren't you?

LILLIS: Absolutely.

PINE: No, Northern Ireland was fantastic. We shot at the Titanic stages, which, interesting history, we may as well have just shot in a sardine can or just put up a camp tent and shot underneath that. It was the loudest excuse for a sound stage I've ever shot in my entire life.

RODRIGUEZ:: They had coal, being dumped on ships.

PINE: It was unbelievable, but that aside, you can't beat the countryside and what it afforded us in terms of... Just the scenery was absolutely out of control. The Northman I think had just shot there, just wrapped. So we ended up using some of the stuff that they built, and we refurbished it as our own. Then in turn, the other interesting thing that I really liked about it is that so much of the, as John and Jonathan will talk about is so much of the effects work was practical. So all that stuff that you saw today and the teaser little bit about the dying guys come waking up, none of it was CG. It was all these practical, awesome creations that were coming alive before us as actors on the day, which was great fun.

One of the things I love about John and Jonathan's work is that they really find great places to add levity to scenes. They're very, very funny people. Can you talk about working with them and the way they were able to add, like making jokes, even though it's a Dungeons & Dragons movie?

PINE: Yeah. I think the important part... I'm just... Please anyone just fucking answer. Anyone will happily stop talking. Hugh?

GRANT: Well, I tell you that was a big draw for me. When this thing came my way, I thought, I don't think I do that kind of film. Then I read it and it was so funny, brilliantly funny, you are absolutely right. These guys seem to be raised on Monty Python or something. That was a huge attraction for me. I haven't seen the film, but I think it's survived production. Jokes don't always survive production. But I think in this case they have. The clip that was played in the hall just now of the dead people, people loved it. I heard real laughs.

That was actually Paramount paying the audience five bucks each. To make you feel good. I'm joking. Obviously, I'm being an asshole, but one of the things I saw, and in the footage, you can see it, the costumes and the attention to detail. Do you think that a movie like this is maybe a little... It's like right on time after the world knows Game of Thrones and the popularity of Dungeons & Dragons in the last decade or two coming back, a lot of people playing, do you think it's the right time for this to hit?

PINE: From what I heard, I forget who gave me this number, but there were like 2 billion hours of Dungeons & Dragons watched over multiple platforms, like YouTube players playing Dungeons, that may be apocryphal. Suffice it to say that it's way more popular than I ever imagined. And when you get a bunch of people together and you survey 10 people more often than not, the majority, well, played or do play Dungeon & Dragons in some sort, and you just haven't heard about it. So I think, it will appeal to, obviously players, but again, like any film that has a rabid following, I know that from Star Trek or whatever, you have to make it appealing to non-fans to invite them into the fold.

At the end of the day, this is just good old-fashioned storytelling. It's not reinventing the wheel and what we're saying. It's all about family and purpose and identity and the hero's journey and all the stuff that stories are all about. But it does it, I think, really well. And in a self-knowing way that doesn't slip into meta or farce or too cool for school or cynical, it's just poppy, good entertainment, I think, with a great message.

I'm going to ask some individual questions. Can you tell me, I'm all looking right at you.

RODRIGUEZ: She's like, "Don't look at me."

I believe your character is an owlbear, or did I get that wrong?

LILLIS: You're kind of right. I play a Tiefling Druid. So I turn into various animals, one of them being-

RODRIGUEZ: She eats ashes.

LILLIS: That is true. I forgot about that small tidbit. I don't know how to react to that.

RODRIGUEZ: I'm here to help.

LILLIS: Thank you. But yes, I am a Tiefling Druid. So, throughout the story, I turn into various creatures.

I wanted to ask you guys, in the footage that I saw, you both look like you're badasses, and I'm just curious, what can you tease about your characters and how much action you actually get to do in the film?

PAGE: I mean, chief badass over here.

PINE: These two, for sure.

RODRIGUEZ: He says that, but honestly-

PAGE: Five pounds of muscle.

RODRIGUEZ: The whole time everyone's looking at him, like he's Jesus, like he's just this hardcore knight in shining armor that just comes in. I don't think that his character took it too well when he came along. But that's just me personally, just what Holga got out of it. I don't know. But I think you were pretty badass.

PAGE: We did a fair bit of fighting. We got to live out the whole swinging sword, swinging axes, slaying dragons, defeat the bad guys.

RODRIGUEZ: He’s not Holga’s type at all, but she was fascinated for some reason. I don't know. Maybe she saw like his prior TV shows or something. To say, she's a big fan. Just saying.

PAGE: Hugh, how are your action scenes?

GRANT: I was asked to tone them down.

What?

PINE: Too fuzzy, just too much of a presence on screen.

GRANT: bring a natural menace to cinema.

I actually have one last thing. You guys were in hall H, which is the 7,000-seat room. And I saw online people talking about what you guys were saying, how much were you thinking about before you get on stage?

RODRIGUEZ: That was 7,000 seats?

Yeah. It's a ton of people.

RODRIGUEZ: Holy scheisse.

So my question is, before you step on stage for something like that, are you thinking about, what am I going to say? Are you thinking about anything? Or are you like, "Fuck it, let's just go."

GRANT: I was horrified to watch. Personal Michelle's entrances, he's doing boxing and God knows what she comes on. The acrobatics. I thought, "I can't do that. I was 61. I'm English. I'm in quite a bad mood." That was terrifying. But I think you did the right thing. I think you've struck the right note.

PINE: I think. No, for sure. I thought about it quite a bit. I think it comes naturally, if you've chosen the film for a good reason. If you went into it with an intent and thankfully... What I said on stage, I really do believe. Playing the game that I had no interest in at all. I was one of the assholes that thought it was just for dorks. And then I played it with my family and the immediate joy that it created within my family, the immediate bonding within 20 minutes that it created, I was completely taken with it and really moved by the unifying power of this game, which is essentially what acting. It calls to mind everything that we're asked to do as actors. It's like, you're whatever you are, you have special powers X, you're with these people, now make a family and go do something, go do a story.

So, it requires all the powers that you have as an actor. It's completely unifying, because you can't say no, it's all yes and, yes and, yes and. Okay, fine, and this thing happens. Okay, how are we going to get through that? So I was really quite blown away by it. Really that, what I said on stage, and I think what makes this particular brand, so special is that it has that unifying power that, especially in a world now that we have, that is just nothing, but disunity and chaos. It's nice to be reminded that every once in a while playing pretend and using your imagination for something fun is good and is a force for good.

PAGE: Put that to music there. There are the bard superpowers, right there.

PINE: Oh my God, are you still doing that?

On that note, I really want to say, thank you guys to coming for coming in. Dungeons & Dragons is going to be in theaters in March of next year. Thank you so much. Cannot wait to see the movie.

For more on the upcoming D&D Movie:

‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ Trailer Breakdown: Magic, Monsters and More

‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’: Everything We Learned From The SDCC 2022 Panel

'Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves' Images Showcase Chris Pine's Bard